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“No!” he shouted. He was furious. “That isn’t what you are going to school for. Someday, Angeline, you’ll be a doctor, or a lawyer, but not a garbage collector.”
“You never know,” she whimpered.
“Oh yes I do!” he shouted. She was afraid he was going to hit her. She’d never seen him so angry. “Tomorrow I want you to tell your teacher—Mrs. Hardlick or Mr. Bone or whatever you want to call her—that you are not going to pick up anybody’s garbage except your own.”
Angeline buried her face in a throw pillow. “I’ll see if I can resign,” she said.
“If your teacher doesn’t like it, tell her to talk to me!” he told her. He looked at her crying into the sofa, then walked away into the kitchen.
She sat up. “It isn’t fair!” she cried, and headed for the bathroom. “That’s what you do!” She slammed the bathroom door. Then she opened it and slammed it again.
Abel turned on the kitchen sink and splashed water in his face. “I can’t even talk to her,” he muttered. He sighed as he thought of her crying in the bathroom. He sadly began preparing dinner.
“Do you want a milkshake with dinner?” he called. He knew she loved milkshakes. “Strawberry!”
She walked into the kitchen. Her eyes were red from crying. “No thank you,” she said. “I’ll have a glass of salt water, please.”
“Salt water,” he thought. He wanted to ask her why she liked to drink salt water, but he didn’t know how.
Nine
Garbage
Christy Mathewson had her ears pierced. She came to school with little gold posts sticking through them.
“They’re real gold,” she said to the circle that had gathered around her. “If it wasn’t real gold, my ears would turn green.”
Angeline wanted to see too, but she was outside the circle. She either wanted to see Christy’s gold earrings or else she wanted to see her ears turn green.
“I have to leave them in for two weeks,” Christy said. “I can’t take them out for anything, or else the holes will close up.”
“Big deal,” said Philip as he pushed his way through the circle. “I wish your mouth would close up.”
“Drop dead,” said Christy.
Angeline tried to peek through the hole in the circle made by Philip but it quickly closed up, just like Christy said her ears would if she removed her earrings.
“Why don’t you get your nose pierced, too?” said Philip. “That would look real good.”
“Why don’t you shut up,” said Judy Martin.
Pretty soon the circle broke up and Christy was talking only with Judy Martin, mostly about what a creep Philip was, although they also thought he was kind of cute, but in a creepy sort of way.
Angeline walked up to them. “May I see your earrings, Christy?” she asked.
Judy Martin replied before Christy could say anything. “Get lost, Freak. Can’t you see we’re busy?”
Angeline flushed. She turned and quickly went to her desk. She couldn’t understand why people were so mean, for no reason at all. And it wasn’t even Judy whom she’d asked. It was Christy. “That’s no reason to cry,” she told herself, “just because she wouldn’t let you see her earrings.” It was just that she was always on the outside. She wished she could be an insider.
Mrs. Hardlick came in and the bell rang. Algebra was first. Algebra would have been Angeline’s favorite subject except that Mrs. Hardlick killed it.
Angeline tried to think of a way to tell her that she couldn’t be Secretary of Trash anymore. I wish to resign my position as Secretary of Trash…Due to family obligations I must resign my position as Secretary of Trash. She stared at a poster that she hated. She hated everything about the classroom. She thought it was the ugliest classroom in the school. And it was the ugliest school in the world. The only thing she liked about it was being Secretary of Trash. And Gary. And Mr. Bone. And Mr. Bone’s fish. I can no longer be Secretary of Trash. I regretfully resign.
She heard Mrs. Hardlick teaching algebra, but she couldn’t listen to her. She hated Mrs. Hardlick more than anything.
She thought of a joke Gary had told her. A man fell out of an airplane. Luckily, he had a parachute. Unluckily, the parachute wouldn’t open. Luckily, there was a haystack underneath him. Unluckily, there was a pitchfork in the haystack. Luckily, he missed the pitchfork. Unluckily, he missed the haystack. She laughed to herself. She thought it was the funniest joke she’d ever heard.
“Angeline!” said Mrs. Hardlick. “Do you think algebra is funny?”
